Sophie Schiller's Discussions

I'm a resident of Brooklyn and a proud new member of SheWrites. When I'm not clacking away at my laptop, I'm also an avid reader. In fact, I just finished reading "Saving CeeCee Honeycutt" by Beth…Continue

"I disagree with the premise that "the bias against women’s writing that was prevalent in the eighteenth and nineteenth century persists today." Some of the biggest-selling novels of all time were written by women writers like J.K.…"

"Liked and followed! Honestly I don't think rejection is as devastating as it was in previous generations since the digital age has empowered us to take our careers in our own hands and publish anyway. That is a HUGE blessing!"

"Ask yourself this question, if you had known all those things at the beginning, would it have changed your mind in any way? NO? Then welcome to the club. How do you think a pearl is formed? From adversity. When a piece of sand gets stuck inside an…"

"It's not easy. When you are going back as far as the 16th century. Luckily you can find decent history books and even paintings from the period to see how people dressed and wore their hair. Check out the paintings of Wolf Huber, Hans…"

"I go straight to the source, to journals, diaries, and travel books written by people who lived in the period I write in (1880-1918). For instance, I found that French aristocrats would bring cases of soda and duck confit when going on shooting…"

"I think when they say "bending of the historical facts", they are referring to attitudes, behaviors, and situations which are contrary to the historical record. The classic example would be the fiesty, feministic 17th century female…"

"The present tense is used in historical fiction novels such as "Water for Elephants" and "The Help". Beware, it's very hard to pull off, and even harder when there's more than one narrator, such as in "The…"

"What girl didn't idolize Farrah Fawcett back in 1979? But what Ms. Fawcett had, namely, the ability to interrupt your regularly scheduled program to deliver you a selling message about shampoo, independent writers don't have. We work…"

"Hi E.C.
With all due respect to Urenna, going to little book fairs and holding readings at libraries may be fun and cute, but it's not going to help you sell your book in any significant quantity. (It's mostly a waste of time.) Unless…"

"Spy Island" released January 2013.
A special edition of "Spy Island" titled "Transfer Day" was reissued to commemorate the 100th Anniversary of the transfer of the Danish West Indies in 2017.
About to release my 2nd novel "Race to Tibet", a thrilling tale of high altitude adventure and survival set during the Victorian era.

My writing is:

Fiction

Outlets where I review books, TV, or film:

Goodreads

Services I offer to other writers:

Can offer helpful critiques on researching/writing fiction. Creating characters, plot, tension, setting, dialogue, sentence and paragraph structure. Where does a story begin? How do I make my character more sympathetic? How to leave out cliche. Breathing life into a charachter and what are the essential elements of a great story.

I'm part of these writers' groups or salons:

Sackett Street Writer's Workshop

My professional associations:

HNS-Historical Novel Society

I found out about She Writes from:

Writer's and Poet's Magazine.

Comment Wall (10 comments)

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Feel free to start discussions, post links to favourite reviews or blogs, beloved (or not-so-beloved) books--anything that falls under the broad literature umbrella! I'd bet that a gal who writes historical fiction and spy thrillers has some drool-worthy book recommendations!

I'm new to the group moderator biz, so please let me know if there's anything I can do to make your experience with my group a good one, if there's anything I've overlooked. Most important, please have fun!

My story takes place the second half of the 18th century. So, like 100 years before yours. All my novel ideas seem to fall in the 18th century, strangely. I feel like I shouldn't talk yet about the story, since I haven't written my first draft. But the current structure of the story is two storylines that eventually weave into one. There are art and spiritual threads throughout. That much I can say. I too plan on traveling to Tibet and Nepal to do research. My idea is to go next year as I am finishing up a historical novel right now: CUT FROM THE EARTH. You can read about on my blog. And I will be looking for representation for this novel summer/fall 2013. We must be in touch. Maybe we could even do some travel together. I am a veteran backpacker and I have contacts in Nepal. I will go check out your blog!

Sophie- I see here you are working on a novel about Tibet...wow, I am too! Crazy. At least I think at this point it is Tibet, it could shift to Nepal. It is the second novel I have in the works, but I have outlined, I know the four main characters, time period, and have written the opening scene. We must be in touch with each other. What stage are you at with you novel? Serendipitous. If you would like, visit my blog as I will visit your site listed above.

Sophie, will you repost the below - which you put in the "what we're writing thread" - in the "Our published novels thread instead"? And there are instructions there for how to downsize the cover. Thanks!

Meg Waite Clayton Novelist Group Moderator

"Spy Island" is a YA Historical Spy Thriller about an adventurous girl in the West Indies during WWI who rescues a deserter from a German U-boat. This unlikely couple then teams up to thwart a German invasion and rid her tranquil island of a nest of German spies. "Spy Island" features witty Irish sailors, German spy characters, Old World Danish characters, colorful West Indian characters, and a spunky and resourceful heroine who turns into an accomplished spy hunter.

Hi Sophie! I am actually a brand new SheWrites member, so I've joined a couple of groups but haven't done more than that. Looks like there is hours of good reading to do here though, that's for sure! I searched for other historical fiction writers to add as friends, that is how I found you - I'm just starting working on my first book so I'm a total newbie... :P

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